Here comes the sun... and dinner is served

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MOSCOW - The hot sun has been beating down on us for a long time. And while some do their best to just avoid it, others see a way of taking advantage of it.

Like Viola resident Sharon Cousins, who was showing off her solar cookers Saturday in Moscow.

"It's a four pan roaster full of meat loaf," said Cousins. "It's cooking in a disposable aluminum roaster, in a turkey roasting pan, with a reflective panel made from poster board and aluminum foil. This was invented by a woman from the south who goes by Solar Cooking Nut on the net and she is brilliant. This is one of her most brilliant things because it's a very accessible technology. You can walk into any dollar store and walk out with the materials to build yourself a working solar cooker."

Cousins knows it's important to not spend too much time in the sun. But when it comes to her solar cooking devices, that same sun is a beautiful thing.

Cousins was at Moscow's Berman Creekside Park Saturday as part of the Second Annual International Smoke-Free Solar Cookout. She was cooking everything from that meatloaf to rice pudding to chicken wings.

"Here we have chicken wings and you can see they're almost ready to start steaming," said Cousins. "In half an hour you'll be able to see bubbles around the edges. This is called a hot pot, it's a wonderful solar cooking system sold by Solar Household Energy, which is a great group that's done a lot to get solar cookers to Central American, Mexico and South America. The system includes this glass bowl and this special made flat coated steel pot that fits into the glass bowl."

Cousins offers advice on doing your own solar cooking. You can read more and contact her at her website: www.EZ-3SolarCooker.com.